Bartender 'threatened with arrest by Google heavies' after phone left in bar...

Bartender 'threatened with arrest by Google heavies' after tech employee accidentally left top-secret phone at his bar

A San Francisco bartender found himself in Google's cross hairs after an absent-minded employee of the tech giant accidentally left a top-secret new smartphone in his bar in September.

Jamin Barton says a security officer for Google, who had previously been a special agent for the State Department, harassed him and repeatedly threatened him with arrest if he didn't turn over the Nexus 4 -- a new phone that the company has yet to release publicly.

It's a story that has played out before: An employee of a major tech company leaves behind a prototype of a new phone at a bar. The company then throws its legal weight into trying to keep the details of the device a secret.

In 2010, Brian Hogan found an iPhone 4 prototype that an Apple employee left at a San Fransisco bar and sold it to a tech site for $5,000. He and a friend were both charged with theft after Apple claimed the device was stolen.

Mr Barton didn't realize what he had until he showed it to a tech-savvy friend. It's common for people to leave their phones at his bar, the 500 Club, Wired magazine reports.

His friend realized the 'not for sale' sticker and Google logo meant the phone was actually the top-secret Nexus 4.